Stories of A level success at Denstone College

Denstone College pupils of 2018 are celebrating some fantastic A level results yet again. There have been notable successes with 10 pupils attaining 3 or more A* to A grades.

“With 16.4% of the results at the top A* grade or equivalent, our pupils have achieved the best results in 6 years at Denstone by this marker. They will go on to study at some of the top universities as a result including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Warwick. I am delighted for our pupils and staff that their collective hard work has been rewarded,” said David Derbyshire, who retires after 21 years as Headmaster of the College.

Archie Gardner topped the results at the College attaining 4 A* grades and will go on to study Maths at Warwick. He will be joined by Sophie Barlow who achieved 3A*s and 1A, as did Caitlin Buckley who will study Natural Sciences at Durham. Max Davis will take his place to study Earth Sciences at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Tom Cox has realised his offer to study History at Robinson College, Cambridge.

New Headmaster, Miles Norris, commented: “Tom has been a House Captain, an NCO in the Cadet Force, a key choir member and played the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar, the start of which was delayed to give him time to travel back from his Cambridge interview! We have a phrase here – Denstonians are participators and not spectators. Tom is living proof of that and he is not alone. The pupils have capitalised on the plethora of opportunities inside and out of the classroom here at Denstone College and are now ready to go out and make their mark.”

With the new linear A level exams, and a desire by government to make the process more academically rigorous, the results at Denstone have been very strong across the board with 38% of all exams resulting in A* to A grades or equivalent and 88% A* to C or equivalent. 

Andy Wray, Head of UCAS and Careers at Denstone said: “With such strong results, we see our pupils taking up offers to study a wide range of subjects from Medicine to Product Design, from Law to Veterinary Sciences and from History to Marine Biology. Whilst most of our pupils are heading to university, others are choosing other paths such as pursuing apprenticeships or careers like the armed forces straight from school. There are many opportunities out there and these results open the door.”

Left to right: Sophie Barlow: A, A*, A*, A* – (Stoke On Trent) to study Maths at Warwick University, Caitlin Buckley A, A*, A*, A* – (Ashbourne) to study Maths and Economics Durham University, Archie Gardner A*, A*, A*, A*– (Stone) to study Maths at Warwick University.

Left to right: Thomas Cox A, A, A*– (Burton-On-Trent) to study History at Cambridge University, Lydia Fitzmaurice-James A*, A*, A – (Newcastle-Under-Lyme) to study Medicine at Edinburgh University, James Taylor A*, A, A – (Stafford) to study PPE at Exeter University.